Guitar World Interview: Neil Young Discusses 'Mirror Ball' and Working with Pearl Jam (September 1995)
Here is a clip from Guitar World Interview: Neil Young Discusses 'Mirror Ball' and Working with Pearl Jam (September 1995) by Gary Graff.
“People my age,” sings Neil Young on his latest album, Mirror Ball (Reprise), “they don’t do the things I do.”
No Kidding.
At 49 – an age when so many veteran rockers put themselves on the summer tour greatest hits treadmill – Young is still rocking with a fury, opening new vistas in his amply celebrated 30-year, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career. Mirror Ball is Young’s collaboration with Pearl Jam, an inevitable move, really, considering the creative kinship evident between the two since Pearl Jam emerged from Seattle in 1991.
Pearl Jam’s staunch independence – TicketMaster battle and all – echoes Young’s.
And the quintet’s thick, dynamic guitar attack owes more that a little to Young’s part-time band, Crazy Horse. Young, for his part, has willingly played the benevolent and supportive big brother/father figure for not only Pearl Jam, but also for any other modern rock denizens who acknowledge him as an influence. If Pete Townshend were writing this story, it would be titled “The Punks Meet the Godfather.”
“I was completely honored to be playing with him,” Mike McCready gushes about the four days Young and Pearl Jam spent recording Mirror Ball in Seattle, with Pearl Jam collaborator Brendan O’Brien producing and playing keyboards. “We’re enamored of him… and I’m honored he says he’s into us. I think he just likes where we’re coming from. He sees a lot of honesty in our music.”
Still, there’s a difference between being buds and rubbing elbows with your heroes and actually getting down to brass tacks in the studio.
“Oh yeah,” McCready acknowledges. “We’d be jamming, and I’d look over and say to myself, ‘That’s Neil Young, and he’s playing leads. That’s the shit!’ I could only wish to be that good.
“I think he’s a genius.
There’s a complexity to his playing, a complexity of emotions. He’ll sustain a note forever and it’ll sound amazing, whereas I’m used to playing a bunch of different leads. He made me look at how I play, and I’d like to eventually play like him. He always hits the right note.
I don’t think it’s a thinking process for him; he just does it.”
Full interview @ Guitar World Interview: Neil Young Discusses 'Mirror Ball' and Working with Pearl Jam (September 1995) by Gary Graff.
On Sept 11, 2022, Pearl Jam performed an encore with a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" plus the "Star Spangled Banner".
In 2021, we highlighted the upcoming Neil Young w/ Pearl Jam Mirror Ball Live album recorded in 1995 at the indoor Simmonscourt Arena, Dublin, Ireland.
Pearl Jam and Neil Young have been collaborating since at least 1992 when Pearl Jam and Neil played separately at the Bob Dylan tribute ("BobFest") at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 16. It is believed that this is when Neil and Eddie Vedder first met and possibly Neil invited Pearl Jam to play at the Bridge School Benefit concert. on 11/1/92.
A few weeks later Pearl Jam would play the Bridge School concert and mark the beginning of a long and productive relationship. Since their initial meeting, Pearl Jam's music has been heavily influenced by Neil Young as demonstrated by their numerous covers of Young songs. For example, Pearl Jam has covered "Rockin In The Free World" over 100 times, often as final encores, according to the Pearl Jam fan site Lukin.
A year later, Neil would join Pearl Jam onstage at the MTV Music Awards on 9/2/93 to play an incendiary Rockin in The Free World. Critics would call the onstage interplay the highlight of an otherwise lackluster affair. The attention gained from "BobFest" and playing with Pearl Jam would introduce Neil to a new generation of admirers.
It is likely that during this period that Young invited Eddie Vedder to induct him into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame the following year.
For Neil's induction speech, Eddie Vedder said (from Five Horizons):
- "He's taught us a lot as a band about dignity and commitment
and playing in the moment and when I hear, you know, the speeches and
inducting Janis Joplin and Frank Zappa, I get, uh, I'm just really glad
he's still here. And I'm gonna (audience applauds; Eddie rolls his eyes,
smiles and clutches his hand to his heart)... yeah!!
And I think I'm gonna have to say that I don't know if there's been another artist that has been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame to commemorate a career that is still as vital as he is today. Some of his best songs were on his last record."
Several weeks later, Neil would return the favor and perform at the Voters For Choice Benefit Concerts in Washington, DC.
Neil went on to rescue a PJ show in San Francisco at the Polo Field on June 24, 1995 when Eddie fell sick after 3 songs.
The only recording Neil and Pearl Jam did together was the Mirror Ball
and Merkin Ball albums. (The recording sessions and tour are covered in
detail below. To play and listen to a MP3 sample from Neil Young Mirror Ball
Neil Young & Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder
Toronto - September 11, 2011
(See Neil Young Fans Have Spoken and They Want Pearl Jam?! Archives Survey Results Posted)
"Walk With Me"
Also, see:
Uncle Neil & Nephew Eddie
For more on Pearl Jam and Neil Young, see Eddie Vedder Influences page.
Eddie Vedder
Columbia, MD - 9/18/98
Photo by Thrasher
Labels: interview, neil young, pearl jam
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/14/2022 05:52:00 AM
8 comments
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8 Comments:
you work so hard on these posts.
Thanks for noticing Art!
yes, we do try a little harder than Rolling stone, UNCUT, MOJO, etc.
but we have to. because we care.
to some, this seems like a lot of cut & paste rehash. To some extent true, but still needs the research, compilation, coding, proofing, publishing, etc.
So it does mean a lot to us that folks notice and care as well.
it offsets the grumbling we get about linking a post where the YouTube vid is dead.
as if we have anything to do w/ videos that YT pulls. sheesh. give us break.
oh, the labors of love.
and we did really have an intense PJ & Neil phase for awhile during the Mirror Ball era. So well worth the look back at Uncle Neil & Nephew Eddie.
@ Thrasher : Thank You! For delivering on content for us Neil Young -ologists! You have so far delivered faithfully an impressive volume of high quality content, an array of fascinating topics!
Thrasher’s Wheat is a meeting place for Neil fans. It is a terrific long term venue for current / past discussion among hard core fans & others about topics of appreciation for the Artist we love, drawn in as if by some magnetic force, Neil Young! What a topic!
Thank you Thrasher and Thrashette for holding fast to the cause of our affections!
I just got Bowie’s Heathen album partly for his cover of “I’ve Been Waiting For You” as was recently discussed by you in TW, of course. And I was lucky enough to see Bowie play at the Bridge show in ‘96! But I only had a best of and one other album.
Neil has worked hard at his craft. He has relentless great care to shepherd his Art for us to enjoy. A truly important music Artist who has unlocked and released vast treasures for us! It’s a Damon good time to be a Neil Young fan! Even in the pandemic aftermath. Uncle Neil has tapped the Reserves for us. Such amazing things have happened, like TFA re-release & Rust Bucket! Just to name a few!
My theme here has veered into Neil as Father Christmas, with bags filled with sonic (and visual) priceless nuggets of audio gold!
Some releases are so priceless, I don’t even buy them, being a NYA member & all the great stuff that provides!
And we continue to cheer Neil on in these days after his Birthday.
Peace out. Your Bro Alan in Seattle
“It’s a DAMN good time to be a Neil Young fan!”
I still go back and listen to Mirror Ball quite a bit more than I would have thought back when it was released. Pearl Jam did him proud, though I still sometimes wonder what could have happened had Nirvana been selected as one of the opening acts of the Weld tour. If Neil and Kurt could have connected on that tour, who knows where that could have gone. Oh well.
Mirror Ball is still a great listen, though. "Big Green Country" and "Truth Be Known" are both great underrated Neil tunes.
And, I love the Mirrorball album!
I freak out on I’m the Ocean, for good reason!
What a powerful song! And the I Got Id single with Neil blazing on it is one of his best solos ever(?!).
Your brother Alan in Seattle
Four days in the studio for a classic might even be a record for Neil.
Still, waiting for the live footage/album, anywhere I can vote again?!
Great post, thanks
@ YBiS - as always, appreciate the enthusiasm here on TW.
Keep that spirit flyin'
YBiGD
@ Richie - the Nirvana riddle is timeless.
Not to be whatever, but we got Sleeps w/ Angels out of it. not sayin that's good/bad.
that's just how it turned out.
at same time, knowing what we know now, it just feels that Eddie & neil are more simpatico than Neil & Kurt could've ever been.
but who knows?
Nirvana ... Neil's 90's Crazy Horse?!
@ David - still waiting here too.
thanks for kind words.
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